The 5 Least Loyal MLB Fanbases: 2014 Edition

Baseball loyalty is sacred. Like every other form of fandom, being a fan — a “real” fan, whatever that implies — is supposed to transcend the highs and the lows that come with rooting for a franchise (or just the lows if you’re a Mets fan.) In the tenor of a manners instruction, one should not abandon one’s team, even when that team bypasses mediocrity for out and out awfulness.

Some teams have fans that understand that better than others. Brand Keys, a customer loyalty research consulting firm, has been putting out their Sports Fan Loyalty Index for over two decades now. Their latest, the 22nd, dropped in April. The top 5 teams, as far as loyalties lie, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise — they are, in order, the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, and San Francisco Giants. Let’s take a moment to golf clap for what seem to actually be “The best fans in baseball.”

Yeah, that was rough. It’s always humbling when some franchise is purported to have more loyal fans than the one that you root for, but take heart fans of the 20 MLB teams that aren’t at the top: at least your team isn’t in the bottom 5. Unless they are. In which case, condolences — just blame the other fairweather fans. They’ll be back when you guys make it to the World Series.